Few Estonian defense companies are known to the general public. Side mines, unmanned vehicles and surveillance drones are among the best known products currently made by the Estonian defense industry.

Tarmo Ränisoo of Infinitum Strike, a company planning to produce pyrotechnic rocket launchers and warheads, says the defense industrial park is a state-established project that will hopefully save huge amounts of time by cutting out red tape.

"First of all, the planning has to be done. This planning requires coordination – that's a process that takes a couple of years. It is very difficult to assess the outcome," said Ränisoo.

Even Tudeberg, founder of Estonian Ammunition Plant, says his partners in Italy, the U.S. and Turkey have the readiness, technology and investment to start production in Estonia. According to Tudeberg, he had been waiting for months for an operating license from the Technical Inspectorate. On Monday, he received a rejection notice.

"We didn't expect financial support from the state and we didn't want state guarantees for our production, because all our customer contracts were outside the borders of Estonia," Tudeberg said.

While companies cannot understand why the state is in no hurry to make its decisions, the state is expecting companies to submit their plans quite quickly.

"Originally, the application had to be submitted within 4 weeks, from that point on, you had 4 weeks to make an offer – that included a 7-year business plan," said Tarmo Ränisoo.

On important question concerns whether the Estonian Defense Forces (EDF) will want to procure anything from domestic companies at all. In Estonia, that decision is made via the Center for Defense Investment.

"Let's take Latvia as an example. Latvia has a national defense industry company that is starting ammunition production. One of its first customers is the Latvian Defense Forces," Ränisoo pointed out.

Minister of Defense Hanno Pevkur (Reform) has not yet disclosed the names of the 12 Estonian and international companies that submitted bids to participate in the defense industrial park. However, he did outline his expectation for Estonian companies.

"We would like to see the Estonian defense industry produce cruise. We would buy drones, from the Estonian defense industry, unmanned systems. These are the biggest strengths that the Estonian defense industry has," Pevkur said.

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